Baking and Caking for Beginners: Fondant for Beginners: Preparing your Cake to be Covered

Before you start covering cakes with fondant, you gotta make sure that you've got the filling and layering and icing down. Otherwise, any imperfections of the cake will show. So, I decided to add this to the series on Fondant for Beginners.

You need a solid cake and a crumb-free environment. Last May, I attended Wilton Course 1 at a Michael's near us. Here are a few tips I've learned:

As soon as you get your cake out of the oven, cool them in the pans for 10 minutes. Use a timer. Do not let it cool down to room temperature all the way while the cake are in the pans. It will start to stick to it.

After 10 minutes, flip the cake over onto a cooling rack. And then cool all the way.

Chill the cake in the freezer before you cover them with fondant. It minimizes loose crumbs, gives fondant a sturdier base and it will be easier to smooth onto your cake.

DO NOT REFRIGERATE CAKE. Our instructor told us that and I didn't really believe at first. The refrigerator dries out your cake. The freezer retains moisture.

If you left the cake overnight on the freezer, make sure you thaw it completely before you cover it with frosting.

Crumb-coat your cake before you cover it with fondant. A crumb coat is a thinned layer of frosting applied to the cake. It seals in the moisture of the cake and makes frosting the cake much easier.

If you are NOT covering your cake with fondant and will just be icing it with your favorite frosting, put the cake in the freezer for 5 minutes after crumb coating. Then, ice it.

If you ARE covering your cake with fondant, it's advised that you put in a second layer of crumb coat after you take it out of the freezer.

Here's a couple of videos I watched on preparing cakes. The first one is how to level, tort (slice the cake into layers), and fill the cake. The second one is how to apply crumb coating.